The Victorians

Interactive History School Visits, Workshops and Learning Activities

Let us bring the WOW factor into your classrooms with our fun and informative Victorian learning days. This was a fascinating time with the Industrial Revolution, advances in medicine and the growth of the Empire. We can bring to life these topics with our interactive workshops throughout the day.

We love working with primary and secondary schools across Sussex, Surrey and Kent on their Ks1, Ks2 and Ks3 history curriculum topics.

The Victorians

Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 and then reigned over us right through until her death in 1901. This was a period of great change and advances in science and technology. The Industrial Revolution brought about huge increases in production and great wealth for some, whilst many people left the countryside and ended up living and working in cities. The growth of the British Empire around the world meant that the forces were active everywhere. The Crimean War in the middle of Victoria’s reign is a prime example of this. Huge advances in the scientific world also produced great change in fields such as medicine. People such as Florence Nightingale introduced the concept of modern nursing and good hygiene practices. Our way of life today owes much to the energy of our Victorian ancestors.

"The children absolutely loved it....possibly not as much as i did though."

- Teacher, Hull

Original Artefacts and Reproductions created for Workshops

For our Victorian school visits we have many original artefacts and researched and recreated the following artefacts for use during your day:

Military uniforms and equipment for the whole Victorian era, but especially for the time of the Crimean War.

Clothing and everyday items that would have been used by both rich and poor during Victorian times.

Original medical equipment from the era. The clothing and uniforms that would have been worn by Florence Nightingale and late Victorian nurses.

Communication equipment to reflect the changes that occurred during the Industrial Revolution. Everything from signalling with flags, signalling with sunlight using heliographs, the invention of Morse code and electricity and signalling by electric lamp or copper cable and early telephones.

Clothing that would have been worn by both teachers and pupils at a Victorian school. Slates and chalk for learning to write and of course the cane for discipline!

Activities Agenda

During Victorian history workshop your class will:

See demonstrations of how a rich Victorian family dressed for an outing, Father in his frock coat and top hat, Mother in her long dress, petticoats, corset and bonnet and the children dressed in their smart clothing for school.

Learn about developments in communications as an example of the changes the Industrial Revolution brought about. From sending messages short distances by visual means to being able to send messages right around the world instantly.

Try their hand at signalling with flags across from one side of the classroom to the other. Can you get your message across? Sounds easy, but isn’t

Learn about the Morse code and the discovery of electricity and then try using signal lamps and modern signalling torches to send messages back and forth. Again not easy, but lots of students find it similar to texting.

Try our early telephones after first having to help set up the telephone lines and connect the cables. The first time in human history that we could hear each other’s voices over long distances.

A poor family at home. Dad as a miner in his working clothes, mum at home looking after the many children in her family and also having to work in the mill. Both son and daughter at work as children, the son as a chimney sweep and daughter as a scullery girl in the rich family’s house.

Get a chance to try on the rich and poor people’s clothing for photos with the school camera.

See a fire lighting demonstration using the old fashioned method of flint and steel and the modern Victorian ‘lucifer’ match. How much easier it is to use a match - unless it gets damp when the flint and steel wins every time!

See the teachers dressed up as soldiers fighting in the Crimean War. One as an officer, another as a Highland soldier with kilt and feather bonnet and the last as an ordinary foot soldier with his red coat.

Learn about medicine in the Crimean War and how Florence Nightingale helped the wounded in the hospitals in Turkey. We will dress a teacher in her full outfit and then visit a military surgeon and discover how he would operate on his patients using our very own operating table. Very gory, but surprisingly popular, especially when we cut off the teacher’s lower, left leg!

"It was lovely, thank you for coming in"

- Student, Sussex

History Resources Box

To enable you to make the most of our visit we provide a History Resources Box* filled with interesting items from your chosen time period absolutely free. This complimentary box will arrive one month prior to your booking and we will collect it at the end of our visit. (Or you can choose to have it for one month after our workshop.) Boxes might include various items from arrow heads and clothing to fire lighting flint and steel, plus all those little items they needed for everyday living. Teachers have found these resource boxes brilliant for helping with their programmes of work and lesson plans.

*We regret we can only provide History Resources Boxes to schools within a 10 mile radius of our location at this time (Horam, East Sussex).